Just a note, if you're Sims 3 PC game is up to date many of the "additions" from the expansions have been added, IE: muscle slider, breast slider, body hair, basements, etc. I have only the base game and have access to all of these features.

Yeah, I think tattoos came with Ambitions or Late Night, I don't have either but I can get tattoos.

I'm missing Sims3 right now. The monitor I use for my 360 has broken so I can't use my 360 at all, and my PC version has broken horribly so I can't play it.

I'm curious about something though. How much are Sim Points in the US? I want to buy some but I'm guessing it'll be cheaper for someone in the US to buy them for me and then me pay them back via paypal or something.

Tattoos came with Ambitions. I have Ambitions and World Adventures. I am trying to get Late Night and Medieval. But first I need money, and to be able to find them.

In Ambitions I just bought a Time Machine at the Consignment store. I sent a sim to the future and they came back with new everyday clothes. They were strange. Skin tight, and the same color as the skin. I thought she came back naked when I first saw her.

I finally got a second monitor in my room so I can play Sims 3 on my 360 again, *and* I have enough loyalty points with Game to get Town Life Stuff for 49p! I'm hoping they'll release a patch with Town Life Stuff that'll fix Sims 3 completely. It's kinda hard to enjoy it when none of the social interaction works.

Asking for help for a Sims 2 related issue: I recently bought for my wife the Open for Business expansion. She definitely wants to get started on a business for one of her Sims and she has an eye for this specific countertop on which to place her cashing machine. However, even though it seems to be available in several colors and styles, it cannot be selected even though she has enough cash to buy it. And even though the counter appears within a collection's specific folder, it doesn't appear when browsing for all countertops. So could this be an issue of the item really not being available/installed or should I try to re-install the expansion to see if it installs properly?

I'm curious about something though. How much are Sim Points in the US? I want to buy some but I'm guessing it'll be cheaper for someone in the US to buy them for me and then me pay them back via paypal or something.

I don't know about cost, but if you buy the expansion packs and register them on the site, you get a whole lot of them for free, which may be a more appealing option than just purchasing the points themselves.

Really? I got 1000 when I registered Sims3, but I don't think I got any with one of the Stuff Packs, and I have registered the other one I have. I did find out how much they are in the US and they're slightly cheaper but not worth the hassle of getting someone in the US to get them and then sorting out money.

Really? I got 1000 when I registered Sims3, but I don't think I got any with one of the Stuff Packs, and I have registered the other one I have. I did find out how much they are in the US and they're slightly cheaper but not worth the hassle of getting someone in the US to get them and then sorting out money.

I only got them for World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, and so forth. Not the Stuff Packs.

Edit: Upon checking, it seems it was just for World Adventures (another 1,000), unfortunately.

Ah, you gotta love EA, milking us folks dry on basic stuff that SHOULD have been included in the core game. I was perusing a local Best Buy the other day and I've seen many of the EPs for Sims 3 and, wow, deja vu indeed: nearly all of them are identical to their Sims 2 counterparts! I figure at this point you Sims3 victims are only missing stuff like Open for Business and Seasons?

I disagree. Yeah, sure, it might seem like they're just trying to get as much money out of us fans, but the expansion packs do add a lot of new stuff to the game. I definitely feel that Generations was worth getting. Not only did it add a lot of new features but it added a whole load of new items as well. Mostly these were for kids and teens, but adults got some new stuff too. If all of this stuff had been included then we probably wouldn't have Sims 3 yet and it'd probably be on two or more DVDs. I could spend the money on other games but there's something incredibly addictive about Sims 3 that I haven't found anywhere else, and I did get really excited over having body hair in the game, and then even more excited about it when they fixed it with the latest patch. Pets is going to be great when it comes out. It'll be like none of the other Pets EPs yet as the pets will be like human Sims with traits and wishes and they'll be controllable too. You can even send them out to earn money, which is going to be fun.

But yeah, people will keep buying expansion packs and stuff packs so they'll keep selling them.

It's a good thing then that 1) my PC can't run Sims3 with any decent framerate, 2) my wife still hates the look of it and 3)she can't see us spending who knows how much money buying the same stuff we've already bought for Sims2.

I've only ever played Sims3 so I don't know what 2 is like. I know Sims 4 is a long way off yet, but I'll probably be waiting for the first EP to come out before I get it, if I get it at all. I say this now, but I'll probably crack at some point, just as long as they don't keep releasing stuff for Sims 3 until Sims 4 is out.

It won't run it. I just found out the hard way yesterday, and after doing a ton of research it's like this - mid 2010 macs and after have no issues, it's a graphics card thing. 99% of the macs before mid 2010 cannot run the game at all. It will load, you'll be doing everything fine, once you go to live mode the game will freeze. Happens every time.

I spoke to EA tech support and they said that they weren't patching the game anymore (wtf?) and then they said that I should uninstall all expansions leaving just the base game, run all the patch updates, quit, start it again, run more updates, and it should be good to go. Since this is a graphics card thing and there are no *new* updates, I'm not going to waste my time. I would just suggest waiting a while before you switch to Lion, and make sure that this problem has been fixed....doesn't look like it's going to be anytime soon though.

They did. I have no idea what the tech person was talking about. She linked me to some article about it which wasn't very clear, so I asked if it meant no more patches, and she said yes. So...I'm hoping that it's a miscommunication thing and I just read wrong and she's wrong as well. I'm going to assume it's a different type of patching.

Have you tried changing the hairstyle to one from the base game? I have this problem with body hair where it won't stay if I use a hairstyle I've downloaded from the store but it's fine if the hairstyle came with the game. I can't say if it's the same thing or not as I don't have Late Nights, but it's worth trying out.

I don't know, I have mine set up to update automagically.

Just a bit of news. There's going to be a Sims 3 Pets live broadcast from Gamescon on August 20, 2011 @ 1:30pm CET / 7:30am ET / 4:30am PT. They always record it so you can view it later if you can't watch it live. It should be good.

I was just checking the release date for Deus Ex when I saw that Sims 3 Pets Limited Edition is available for preorder so I just place my order for that.

I'm quite excited by this bit of news so I thought I'd share it. They're releasing a create-a-pet demo for Sims 3 Pets. It'll work in the same way as create-a-sim does with all the features of the full release, but you won't be able to play with them. You will be able to create any pet you like from the full release, so you can play around creating silly pets or your ideal pet or the pet you'll play with once you get Sims 3 Pets. Should be available next week.

As I was discussing with Katana the other night, I play it like an RPG-lite. I don't really care that I can't control all the Sims all the time or I can't build, I just enjoy doing all the quests while still trying to manage all the mundane tasks of medieval life.

It's pretty bizarre in places though. It makes you confront the staple medieval issues like religion, sickness and succession, but then there's random people walking into my royal chambers and using the chamber pot. Filthy peasants.

At least you can still decorate though. Now could this kitchen look any more medieval or what?

I haven't had much time with Sims 3 Pets yet, but what I've played so far has been great. The human side of it is pretty much the same but with the addition of pet interactions. The pet side is great. I made my first cat on my 360 using the exclusive 'skeleton crew' breed, adjusted fur shape and length, the shape of the head, and changed its tail to a manx tail. All in all it's the cutest bundle of fluff ever, except she doesn't like being picked up.

One thing I thought was too cute was when I sent my kitten to the city hall. She got a taxi! An actual pet taxi! I had left the human Sim at home making waffles but she somehow ended up in the library in her underwear . .

I'm also liking the screenshot feature. Being able to share the fun is a huge part of what makes Sims 3 great. I just need to work out how to access them now.